This was not mere curiosity. The case arrived in the middle of a European philosophical debate about the relationship between nature and environment, between inherited character and learned behavior. Hauser, if his account was believed, represented an experiment that no ethical mind would design: a human being raised in complete isolation from language, society, and normal sensory experience. What he was becoming, as he learned and developed under Daumer’s care, seemed to offer a window into the question of what a person is beneath socialization.
Hauser demonstrated an unusual sensitivity to some stimuli. He was reported to react strongly to certain metals and magnetic fields in ways that observers found striking. He showed talent for drawing and apparently learned quickly when given the opportunity. He was fascinated by horses and held onto the cavalryman identity that the letters had assigned him.
He was also, almost from the beginning, accused of lying.
The accusations came from people who spent time with him and found inconsistencies in his behavior and accounts. Daumer, who initially supported him fully, began to notice things that did not fit the story of a boy raised in total isolation. How had he learned to walk so quickly? How had he acquired certain grammatical patterns that did not fit a person educated only in the brief period before his appearance? Why did his account of his cell and captor shift in details over time?
These questions followed him through every relationship he formed in the five years between his arrival and his death.